As part of its bid to land a Stateside home, Castle alum Stana Katic‘s new FBI thriller, Absentia, has scored a primo showcase — as the opening night screening for the 57th Monte-Carlo Television Festival.

The annual festival (to be held from June 16-20) “celebrates the very best of television” as well as offers marketing and PR opportunities to producers/distributors looking to access a large group of international journalists, to promote/support sales to worldwide broadcasters. Opening night screenings in recent years have showcased Chicago Med, Empire and Crossing Lines.

Last October, Absentia received a straight-to-series, 10-episode order from Sony Pictures Television Networks’ AXN. With production underway and with an eye on a fall launch, the series is firing up its hunt for a home in the U.S. and other international markets. (AXN previously has commissioned Crossing Lines and Hannibal.)

Absentia follows Katic’s Emily Byrne, an FBI agent who, while hunting one of Boston’s most notorious serial killers, vanishes without a trace and is declared dead. Six years later, she is found in a cabin in the woods, clinging onto life and with no memory of her missing time. Returning home, Emily not only discovers that her husband (Girlfriends’ Guide to Divorce‘s Patrick Heusinger) has remarried, she also finds herself implicated in a series of murders.

“With its acclaimed cast and crew, alongside its intriguing premise, I’m certain Absentia will prove a huge hit with international audiences,” Monte-Carlo Television Festival CEO Laurent Puons said in a statement.